And Everything Was As It Should Be
by Kitcat39
Summary: He's a ghost. She's a ghost hunter. Everything leads to an obvious resolution. Warning: character death.
1. Chapter 1

And Everything Was As It Should Be

Warnings: Violence, character death, just generally depressing stuff

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

AN: Hello, readers! I'm sorry for the extremely lengthy gap between stories, but I am back in action and hoping to post a lot more stories of various fandoms. Let this one act as an apology.

Valerie Gray, or the Red Huntress as some call her, aimed her weapon at the spook known as Phantom. She had been chasing him since about one a.m. and, since it was about four, both were clearly suffering for it. Phantom could barely fly straight and her vision was starting to blur around the edges, but no matter, she could still hunt. With a grin she pulled the trigger, sending a glowing net towards his tail and, in a stroke of luck, it actually hit!

Valerie felt her grin stretch wider as she soared towards her felled quarry. She looked on impassively as Phantom struggled, and readied another weapon. With hardly a moment's thought of how she actually caught him, she finally did it, she sent a blast of pink energy right at his smug face. He was barely able to look at her before he was incinerated, but she felt a hint of smug satisfaction at his shocked and terrified expression. It was over in a moment though. As Valerie swooped down over the char mark of her first and greatest foe, the one who made her become the Red Huntress, she honestly didn't feel much, only a sense of pride and satisfaction.

She looked at the clock in her visor and startled. Four o' clock already! She revved up her hoverboard and zoomed home. Mr. Lancer had said there was going to be a test on some Shakespeare play, Caesar or something, next class, and she would need to be rested for it.

As she crawled in her window, deactivating her suit and falling into bed fully clothed, she decided she would celebrate tomorrow. Maybe she would ask Danny on a date to the Nasty Burger. He was cute and nice, if a bit clueless, and they would have worked out great last time if it wasn't for those damn ghosts! Now that she had defeated Phantom, Valerie thought as she slipped into sleep, they could be together again, and nothing would get in their way this time.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom

AN: Yes, this is being continued, thanks to a review from the lovely Gammija. It will probably be about three to four chapters in total, with more coming within two weeks.

When Valerie woke up to her alarm clock's screeching ring, she very nearly passed out again. She felt absolutely awful. It seemed like every muscle in her body had been worked over by a meat tenderizer-wielding gorilla. Of course, the pain became insignificant the moment she remembered her late night/early morning triumph. With that in mind she practically leapt out of bed, dancing around like a crazy ballerina as she got ready for school and flew out the door to catch the bus.

Of course, the one person she wanted to see, Danny, wasn't on the bus that morning. It wasn't all that strange since the kid was perpetually late, but it was just plain inconvenient. She would have to wait for him to rush into school two hours in, frantically spewing some half-baked excuse that he probably was making up on the spot to an unimpressed Mr. Lancer. That was okay though, she found it weirdly cute. However, that all changed when Skulker and Ember crashed through the windows during first period History, sick joy illuminating their glowing eyes as they lay waste to the classroom.

That event kicked off what would later be known as "The Two Weeks Of Terror," the half-month period where pretty much every spook in the Ghost Zone converged on Amity Park. Ghost hunters were battling in the streets, schools and businesses were closed, the government was called in, basically everything went to hell. By the time it started winding down, as all the ghosts were either destroyed or driven back into the Fenton Portal, which was promptly sealed and demolished, thirty six people were dead or missing and assumed to be dead. Honestly, given the sheer amount of carnage wreaked, that was a low number, even factoring in the prompt evacuations and the Fenton family's policy of freely available weaponry. However, none of that could comfort her when, ten days after it ended while staying in a crappy motel during the town's reconstruction, she received the definitive list of casualties.

Valerie watched as her dad opened the letter, looked it over, and promptly left the room to "get some air." That was a bad sign. She read it anyways. She started crying a little as she saw how many people she knew that were just... gone. Mr. Lancer, her English teacher. Star and Dash, two of her A-list friends. Nathan, that nerdy kid she used to pick on. Even Lance Thunder, the weatherman who she always had a bit of a crush on. The floodgates really opened though when, at the bottom of the list, she spotted the one name she was praying wouldn't be on there: Daniel Fenton.

It made sense of course. What bigger target would there be than the son of two of the town's most successful ghost hunters? Coupled with Danny's absurd levels of clumsiness and almost magical ability to attract trouble, it wouldn't have made sense for him to live through that ectoplasmic hell. That didn't stop the waterworks though.

Her dad rushed into the room immediately, letting her bury her face in his overly-starched shirt. Valerie accepted his hugs and soothing words with more tears, using his tie as an impromptu tissue. She clung to him for almost fifteen minutes, the only thoughts in her head being "Why?" and "What kind of monster could do something like that?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom

AN: I apologize for the long time between chapters. I hope the wait is worth it!

Thirteen months. That's how long it took for Amity Park to be rebuilt enough for human habitation. The actual building only took about eleven months, but the ectoplasmic contamination was severe enough to warrant a full-scale cleaning operation. Regardless, after thirteen months of living in crappy motels and the homes of whoever would take them she supposed she should be glad that dear old Amity was up and running.

Because her house was in Emerston, which was near the edge of the evacuated zone, she and Dad got to move back with the first wave of returning families, not that there was much to return to. The cruddy apartment was still just as cruddy, but now with the added bonus of faulty electric lines and a lot less neighbors. It was kind of creepy at first, but for the first time in over a year she was able to sleep peacefully in her own bed. It was pure bliss.

A week after that the schools reopened. The rebuilt Casper High looked pretty much the same, but it most definitely wasn't. Everything was newer, cleaner, and more modern. It was a nice kind of change, but Valerie didn't want change. Rationally, she realized long before coming back that nothing would be the same. However, subconsciously she had clung to the irrational hope that everything would be exactly the way that it had been before the world went crazy.

School was saddening. Not many people had come back yet, or would come back at all. Most of the teachers were so new that they were straight out of college. They kept on yakking about "positive learning environments" and "being troopers" and how students can go to the counseling offices whenever they feel like it. Valerie would have thought it all a bit useless if she hadn't had to go to the counselor's barely an hour in. It was English class that did it. Since Mr. Lancer was... not coming back, his job had been taken by some blonde woman, twenty-something years old and clearly out of her depth. She was talking about Hamlet, discussing the symbolic nature of Ophelia's flowers in a Southern drawl when Valerie had to leave. It was just too much! Mr. Lancer loved that play and he was the only one who should be allowed to teach it! She ended up spending the rest of the class in Counselor Killian's office, sipping water from a plastic cup and answering every question in three words or less.

The next two classes weren't as hard. Second period was Phys Ed with Tetslaff, who thankfully didn't abandon the town. They ended up spending the whole class doing laps around the gym because the school hadn't received new equipment to replace the destroyed ones. Her third class was Algebra II, which was a bit of a godsend. It was boring, hard, and absolutely normal. It was even taught in the mostly undamaged western side of the school, so the room didn't reek of paint and sawdust.

After math came lunch, which was awkward to say the least. The cafeteria had only about twenty kids in it, so seating choices were slim pickings. She ended up sitting next to Paulina and Kwan. Tucker joined them a few minutes later. Surprisingly, Paulina didn't object. It made sense though. She had just lost her boyfriend, which would be enough to knock the attitude out of a person.

They sat together in silence, punctuated only by the scraping of forks or an overly enthusiastic swallow. The cafeteria food was still awful, which she was oddly grateful for. No matter what, the school meatloaf would still taste like old cow butt.

"It's like a ghost town in here," Kwan said, breaking the silence. Valerie froze, fork halfway to her mouth. Then she started to laugh for the first time since that awful day. Kwan looked shocked at her, but chuckled when he realized his unintentional pun. Soon, their little corner of the cafeteria was filled with the hysterical cackles of kids who had seen and suffered so much, but were healing just a little bit.


End file.
